Swankify Your Abode - Household Tips and Tricks
 

In light of our move, I figured this would be a good time to share and obtain tips and tricks on how to swankify a home, without spending a small fortune.

• Cabinet shelves - our cabinet interiors were pretty ghetto, basically heavily-stained and sticky slabs of particle board. So, instead of pricey shelf liner, we bought a box of self-adhesive vinyl flooring squares. They are easy to measure, easy to cut (with heavy scissors), easy to handle (instead of a big roll that won't lay flat), and are very durable and easy to clean. Already, our cabinets look brand new inside.

Rubbermaid storage "sheds" work well for additional storage on an otherwise open patio/balcony.

Hanging sweater shelves work well for storing rags and hand/bath towels.

What a great idea! Our old Williams and Sonoma contact roll was beautiful in 1987, I think I need to add this to my list of things to do.....:snap:

I take types from clever websites:

http://ikeahacker.blogspot.com/

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/scc.php

http://www.instructables.com/home?category=home

Buy a bigger house

I need tips on what to do with all of my DVDs. I don't have much shelf space and I'm running out of storage space for them.
When I was in Boston, I made holders for them out of file box tops. That worked but it was a pain pulling them out each time to see what I wanted to watch...

We transferred all of ours into DVD albums that store the cover art as well. Collector cases were boxed and put in storage, and the albums fit nicely in the cabinet below the TV. When we want to watch something, we grab them, and just flip through 'em.

That's an interesting idea. But I'm mortified that I'll scratch them putting them in a case like that...

Get one of these.

I don't want to flip through my hundred or more DVDs. I wish I had a single storage space for them. They are in various places all over my apartment.


(perhaps if I finally got rid of the 800 or so VHS tapes I have, I might have some significant shelf space freed up, huh?)




ETA: That MegaChanger might be a good idea, but won't all my DVDs be subject to intense heat every time I play one of them??

Done. I charged it to your credit card. :D

My friend has one of these. He likes it. The only problem is that he had to input the names of all the movies on a menu screen. It took him awhile but it played the DVDs well.

We have one, which is why I recommended it.

Hopefully, he input the movie names using a keyboard (the unit has a standard PSII keyboard connector on the front panel - although USB would be better).

Ok so ... are all your DVDs subjected to the heat of the machine any time it plays, or are they stored in some sort of CryoTank awaiting selection?






(And do they get jealous while you watch other DVDs, leaving them in the CryoTank?)

If it works like my 200 cd changer it's more like a juke box. It only pulls out the one it's playing an the rest just sit in the cart.

I buy Billy Bookshelves in BULK.

Yes, but the cart (not the bookshelves) is inside the machine, no? The machine gets hot, yes?

Prolonged exposure to heat damages DVDs. If you were to play the same DVD a hundred times, it would become heat damaged. So, if you expose 100 DVDs to 100 plays of any of them, they all become heat damaged.


It needs a cryotank, I's tellin' ya.





This has nothing to do with swankifying your digs. I have no budget-concious suggestions on that front.


Plenty of ones that cost a cool walletful. No cheap ones. Sorry.

Concrete bricks and pine boards make a great shelving system.

Yeah… but to make it really swanky, you need to use those fancy open-patterned concrete blocks.

And stacked milk crates make a great media center (just don’t forget to get ones that are all the same color).

You know that look is only swanky if you have hardwood floors though.

To really dress it up, drape some Mardi Gras beads over the whole shebang.

I try to get them from the same dairy.